By Scott Gilfoid: A flabby looking 34-year-old David Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) emerged today saying that he’s finally ready to get back inside the ring to continue his dormant boxing career. Haye injured his right shoulder in 2013 while getting ready for a fight against Tyson Fury. The injury has kept Haye from getting back inside the ring.
In late 2014, Haye spoke of wanting to continue his career at the start of 2015. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.
Haye looks like he’s not been missing too many meals judging by the look of his jowls. My guess is he’s probably around 25 pounds overweight right now. That’s not a lot of weight compared to the tonnage that some fighters put on when they’ve been out of the ring for a long time.
“It’s over three years now that I haven’t been in the ring but I’ve been looking after myself,” Haye said to skysports.com.
Haye will be turning 35 on October 13th, and he’s starting to show his age. Haye does not look like the youthful fighter who lost to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko four years ago in 2011. Haye has aged in those four years. He last fought in 2012, when he beat Dereck Chisora by a 5th round knockout.
The thing is Haye hasn’t been a truly active fighter since his fight against Klitschko. He had that point fight against Chisora in 2012, but before that, Haye had been out of the ring for an entire year after his loss to Klitschko.
So what we’re really talking about is a fighter who hasn’t been an active heavyweight since 2011. That’s a long time for a small heavyweight like Haye. I don’t think Haye will be able to come back from this and be anywhere near the heavyweight he would have been had he not missed 4 years of his career.
“Now I want to get involved – I want to get back in it and start trading blows with some of these big boys,” Haye said.
I’d be very surprised if Haye were to take on Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs), but if he does, it would obviously need to be for big money. I don’t see Haye taking on Joshua if he’s not going to get a big payday. I just don’t know that the British public will be all that interested in a Haye-Joshua fight unless Haye comes back and beats a few solid heavyweights first. That probably isn’t going to happen. If/when Haye comes back to resume his career, I see him
“It’s well documented that I’ve had many injuries, shoulder injuries. I’ve just been working hard behind closed doors, training, making sure that if and when I make this comeback I’m not going to have other injuries,” Haye said.
I’d be interested to know if Haye’s shoulder injury has kept him out of the ring for this long, or if he’s stayed out because of a lack of desire to get back inside the ring to put it on the line against the top heavyweights like Deontay Wilder.
It’s no secret that Haye made a ton of money, and with all that money he’s made, it could be one of the reasons why we haven’t seen him back inside the ring again. Fighters that need money generally don’t stay out of the ring for four years like we’ve seen with Haye.
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